Who spent what? A look at the campaign money in last fall’s provincial election

Editor’s note: Green Party candidate Nicola Spurling’s campaign spending has been temporarily deleted from this article pending review.

Money won’t get you everything but lack of it won’t get you anything.

Seven Tri-Cities candidates spent a total of more than $360,000 in last fall’s provincial election – more than triple the total spent by eight other candidates. (One candidate has not yet filed her election financing report.)

Of the seven top spenders, four won a seat in the legislature.

Port Moody-Burquitlam

The top spender in the Tri-Cities was Conservative Party candidate Kerry Van Aswegen who toted up $71,343 in campaign expenses.

Van Aswegen took about 40 percent of the vote in Port Moody-Burquitlam – finishing 11 percent behind NDP incumbent Rick Glumac, who was the second biggest election spender last year.

Glumac chalked up $68,572 of election expenses. The incumbent’s campaign received more than $65,000 in transfers from the B.C. NDP.

In the majority of cases, the campaigns of the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservative candidates were funded largely or entirely by the party.

Van Aswegen reported spending more than $38,000 on advertising.

While her campaign was largely financed through transfers from the party, Van Aswegen reported receiving a total of $4,625 from: Tayler Charles Basu, real estate agent William Nowell Laidler, Mahnaz Mojtahed, and Ardavan Mohajery.

Port Moody Councillor Samantha Agtarap spent $3,118 running for the B.C. Green Party.

Agtarap reported $500 donations from Bruce Gibson, Surinder Ghog and Sebastian Zein.

Ghog, Zein and Gibson are executives with the AP Group, which owns the Flavelle Mill site.

Agtarap also received $1,000 from the Green Party Political Association.

Coquitlam-Burke Mountain

Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA Jodie Wickens has not yet filed her election financing report.

Wickens won her seat by approximately 1.2 percent, narrowly edging B.C. Conservative Party candidate Stephen Frolek .

Frolek reported total expenditures of $40,794.

The majority of those funds – $30,921 – were spent on advertising.

Coquitlam-Maillardville

NDP candidate Jennifer Blatherwick spent a total of $66,130.

Conservative Party candidate Hamed Najafi toted up $35,562 in campaign expenses. The campaign was entirely funded by transfers from the party.

Independent candidate Ken Holowanky’s largely self-funded campaign chalked up a total of $2,970 in expenses.

Blatherwick won 51 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of Najafi, who finished with just under 40 percent of the vote. Spurling and Holowanky received 6.3 and 2.3 percent of the vote, respectively.

New Westminster-Coquitlam

BC NDP candidate Jennifer Whiteside spent $50,505 in last fall’s election.

Whiteside spent more than $13,000 on advertising and more than $11,000 on salaries and benefits.

Whiteside’s campaign was funded through transfers from the party.

Ndellie Massey spent $5,586 in her campaign for the B.C. Conservative Party. The campaign was entirely funded by transfers from the party.

B.C. Green Party candidate Maureen Curran candidate spent $3,327.

Whiteside captured nearly 59 percent of the vote. Massey finished with 30 percent while Curran garnered 11 percent of ballots cast.

Port Coquitlam

Longtime MLA Mike Farnworth reported total expenditures of $31,778.

Conservative Party candidate Keenan Adams spent $15,671. Adams had previously spent $4,864 as a B.C. United candidate.

Green Party candidate Adam Bremner-Akins spent $2,485.

Libertarian candidate Lewis Dahlby spent $512, paid for with his personal funds.

Farnworth finished with more than 53 percent of the vote. Adams notched 39 percent, while Bremner-Akins took 6.4 percent. Dahlby finished with 1 percent.